


The Seeds of Us

by Brynstein



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Punk Dana Scully, The Unremarkable House (X-Files), but not really, good feels, kinda angsty?, much flirting, mulder in jeans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29718870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynstein/pseuds/Brynstein
Summary: Scully wakes up to loud music playing, Mulder singing at the top of his voice, and the hum of the vacuum cleaner. Then she realises it's her album he has put on. She walks downstairs to see Mulder doing the hoovering whilst dancing to a record she bought during college-- an old punk-rock one from one of her rebellious phases.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Kudos: 30





	The Seeds of Us

t was early March and the fresh warmth of the sun on the springtime flowers was equaled by the warmth of Scully wrapped up to her nose under the duvet. The tip of it twitched against the cover and her eyes fluttered, waking up. Everything was soft. It had been almost two years since she had woken up in a comfortable bed and she didn’t want to get up just yet. So, she snuggled further under the covers, her hair was fanning out across the pillows in a scruffy mess that retained the memory of hands scrunching through it the previous night.

She quietly hummed, “home,” still not quite believing it, and smiled.

It was then that she heard movement downstairs and some old music pump through loudspeakers. Heavy guitar chords and drum beats flood the house, sound waves crashing only slightly muffled into the bedroom. Scully sat up, bemused. The sounds were quickly followed by Mulder’s voice resonating through the walls.

“Da Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Nah! Brrp Brrp Brrp! Da Na Na Na…”

She had to bite her lip to stifle a chuckle.

Pulling on Mulder’s t-shirt from yesterday that was strewn on the floor, Scully made her way downstairs. She was greeted by Mulder and the vacuum cleaner humming along to Should I Stay or Should I Go as they swept their way around the kitchen. Quietly laughing to herself, she held back for a while, watching him dance about barefoot in jeans and a t-shirt. She tilted her head to the side, admiring the view. He did look good in jeans.

Mulder abruptly turned around and she caught herself irrationally blushing.

“Oh hey!” he beamed and switched of the hoover. “Sorry, I was unpacking some of the boxes, and there was some mess, and I found a box with all your music in and… Did I wake you?”

Scully smiled and stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “No, it’s good.”

He cupped his hands over hers on his rough cheeks and sighed. She understood completely what he was saying. It was strange finally living together, owning a house together, doing the things that normal people did after all this time. She frequently caught herself pausing in the moment to appreciate the sublime gravitas of normality. It was utterly, intoxicatingly thrilling.

She grinned. “I know.”

Mulder laughed and nipped at her– his– t-shirt neckline, teeth scraping just inches from her skin. Scully erupted in a burst of small giggles that crescendoed when he lifted her up. She slapped his back to put her down and he did so, but on the countertop, and kissed her cheek.

She looked up at him through her eyelashes, breathing, “I’ll get you back.”

“I look forward to it,” he chuckled.

His hands rested on her bare thighs, thumbs drawing circles higher and teasingly higher until he reached the hem of his shirt, which admittedly on her was not that high. She could tell from his eyes, intently focused on hers, that he was unaware that his hands were making a journey, that he just needed her close and the physical evidence at his fingertips to prove it. He looked at her quizzically like she was a fresh mystery, more brilliant than anything they had seen before, forming a question in his mind.

She shifted involuntarily beneath his touch and raised her eyebrows, prompting him.

“I have to ask,” he eventually said, resting his hands on the dip of her waist. “The Clash? It doesn’t seem like your thing.”

She frowned at him. “What would be my thing?”

He shrugged. “Bach? Mendelssohn? ABBA?”

Bowing her head, she huffed a laugh. “I was going through a phase.”

“A phase?”

Mulder lifted her chin with his finger, wanting to see every moment of her revelation.

“I guess you could call it that.”

“And this phase included punk rock?”

She bit her lip. “No. Well, yes. Sort of. It was my first year of college…”

“Ahhh.” Mulder grinned in recognition, eyes widening, gleaming with curiosity. She could feel herself heating up under his gaze. “Was this phase perhaps one of rebellion? Sex, drugs, and Rock n Roll?”

“Tell me you didn’t have a similar phase.”

He paused, thinking back to his years at Oxford.

“Exactly,” she smirked.

“Okay, fair enough–” he stepped closer between her legs– “but I’m still intrigued by this young, punk Dana. Who was she?”

Scully picked some imaginary lint off of his chest– her need to touch him as equal to his, creating any old excuse to do so whilst her mind wandered back.

“Well, she still did her essays before she went out, but she also used to back-comb her hair and have a belly ring. I even saved my waitressing tips to buy a leather jacket.”

Mulder mock gasped at the shape her unruly behaviour formed, the distinctive mark to rebel within the confines of a safe structure entirely and purely the Scully he knew. It was like seeing the seed of the woman she was today grow in the rich soil of all those past choices.

She gave him a shy smile. “You know, it wasn’t much, but it felt like a lot at the time.”

Mulder captured her soft lips tenderly, smiling against them when she gasped. She laughed at the surprise but pulled him closer, locking her ankles together behind his back. Her hand held his cheek when she pulled away, keeping him close as their foreheads continued to kissed where their lips had broken apart.

“What about young, rebellious Mulder? What was he up to?”

“Nothing nearly as exciting. I still did the club scene, but I was better at getting warnings for trespassing.”

Scully rolled her eyes, drawing closer to him until she was pressing her lips chastely to his, just to feel them. She gently let go and rested her head against his chest, chuckling.

“I had a friend that this song reminds me of. I used to sit in her room and listen to this album, sharing cigarettes and dancing.”

“Is that why you bought this record?”

“No, this is the actual record." Scully shook her head and couldn’t help but smile. "She gave it to me when we graduated.”

“She must have really liked you.”

“Hmm… Isn’t it strange how far we’ve grown apart from our old selves? All the people we’ve left behind? Jane probably has a family now and I only know a 20-year-old version of her from college.”

“Jane? Her name was Jane?”

She pulled back, eyeing him defensively. “What’s wrong with that?”

He laughed and shook his head, softening her brow with his response.

“I do know what you mean. But I don’t think that changing is necessarily a bad thing.” Mulder pressed his forehead to hers and moved one hand from her waist to curl around her small hand. “We are constantly evolving and that’s the beauty of it.”

He slowly closed his eyes, not wanting to miss a moment of Scully, knowing that this version of her was also a seedling, slowly maturing into a future Scully, and she had chosen him as her witness of that life journey. But the completeness of the moment, her in his arms in their house, was contently overwhelming.

Scully’s eyes fluttered closed too and she hummed off-key to the music.

“Mulder, are you slow dancing me to The Clash?”

He grinned, eyes snapping open to see her smiling too.

“Wanna stop?”

She opened her eyes and saw everything in his.

“No.”


End file.
